Branding is what they say about your company when you're not in the room. It's the ripple effect of everything your brand does and stands for. As marketing evolves along with buying behavior and brand loyalty, customers are looking to spend their money with companies that share their values.

In our work as a branding agency, we always ask our clients about their brand heroes; who would they like to emulate, or how would they like to see their brand viewed by consumers. The answer is often Patagonia. Bonfire's founder spent six years working for this game-changing company, and has assembled an all-star veteran Patagonia crew to visit Missoula and deliver a workshop on building a brand.

The three elements of the workshop will be:

People, Values & Mission, led by Lu Setnicka
Story Telling to Leverage Brand, led by Chris Van Dyke
Brand Architecture, led by Hal Arneson.
We are excited to host this event and bring minds like these to Western Montana. If you're coming from out of town, we're happy to help you decide where to stay. Contact us anytime at fire@brandingbonfire.com.

The workshop schedule is:

Sunday, July 27: 4:30-6:30 Welcome, networking & cocktails.

Monday, July 28: Full workshop day.

Tuesday, July 29: Half day workshop followed by small group sessions with industry experts.

Please see bios of our presenters:

Lu Setnicka:

Lu owns her own human resources (HR) consulting firm, Setnicka Consulting, and provides HR consulting services through Moementum, Inc. (www.moementum.com). In addition, she was a Professor of HR for the MBA program at California State University, Channel Islands during the first quarter of 2014. She is formerly Global Director of HR for Patagonia, Inc., a premiere outdoor industry brand. In this role she managed all global HR-related responsibilities, including recruitment/staffing, employee relations, benefits, employee development, training, payroll and internal corporate communications. Lu began her career at Patagonia in the Wholesale Division, and then worked for four years as an HR specialist in Recruitment and Employee Relations. She also worked as assistant to Patagonia's founder, Yvon Chouinard, served as the company's Public Affairs Director for ten years, and prior to leading the Human Resources team, was Patagonia's Director of Training and Employee Development.

Before working at Patagonia, Lu spent fifteen years working for the National Park Service in national parks throughout North America, including Yosemite, Everglades, Grand Teton and Hawaii Volcanoes. She has a Master's Degree in Organizational Management from Antioch University, a Bachelor's degree in Psychology from the University of California at Berkeley, and is a certified Career, Executive and Life Coach with the Hudson Institute of Santa Barbara.

Hal Arneson:


Hal Arneson designs and implements creative strategies that allow for-profit businesses, and change based organizations to effectively communicate their differentiating values and increase their sphere of influence.

A founding member of Nau, Inc., Hal partnered with Jil Zilligen and Chris Van Dyke to create a unique business model built on the foundational principle of blending profitability and sustainable business practices.

As VP of Creative, and Brand Management at Nau, Hal was a driving force behind the development of a value proposition predicated on the balance of beauty, performance and sustainability. He and his team were responsible for the direction and broadcast of this proposition thru all media channels.
Prior to joining Nau, Hal was the VP of Creative at Patagonia, Inc. for over twenty years.He built up an in-house, full service creative agency from 4 individuals to a team of over 30 designers, writers, producers and photographers, directly responsible for reflecting the unique visual and editorial style for this premium outdoor brand on a global level.



Chris Van Dyke:

Chris works with companies, non-profit and social change organizations to develop and implement communication strategies that effectively support their institutional goals. In this process, he helps companies and organizations articulate and prioritize their objectives so that they may identify and influence key constituencies through their communications.

Chris has over 30 years of senior experience building and leading teams in the private, public and non-profit sectors. Trained as an attorney, Chris has worked the past two and a half decades in communications and brand building for businesses ranging from start-ups to Fortune 500 companies and, most recently, as the Senior VP of Strategic Communications at World Wildlife Fund in Washington, DC.

Early in his career, Chris was elected District Attorney in Salem, Oregon where he also served as the Chair of the Oregon District Attorney's Legislative Committee. Following his term in office, Chris joined Nike, Inc. as East Coast Legal Counsel in Washington, DC. During his 17-year tenure with Nike, Chris moved from legal work to a focus on communications and brand building, working as Marketing Director for Nike's U.S. apparel division and later as Regional Marketing and Brand Director for Nike's Asia Pacific office in Hong Kong.

Following Nike, Chris held a senior position at Patagonia, Inc. where he was VP of Marketing and Product Development. In 2004, Chris co-founded Nau, Inc. and was its President and CEO. At Nau, Chris and his team won numerous product and sustainability awards including awards from Time, The Social Venture Network, Outside Magazine and National Geographic Adventure. As CEO of Nau, Chris was a guest speaker at Harvard Business School, Stanford Business School, Hass School of Business, P&G, LOHAS, and the Social Venture Network.



Our sponsorship partners include:

BREDD

http://www.bredd.org/